ArtiFact #1: Abraham Maslow & Artistic Creativity | Alex Sheremet, Joel Parrish

In the first episode of ArtiFact, Alex Sheremet and co-host Joel Parrish discuss art and artists in light of Abraham Maslow's classic text, "Toward A Psychology of Being" (1962).

This discussion can also be viewed on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFUooBvJAOo

Read the latest writing from automachination: https://automachination.com

Joel's website: https://poeticimport.com

Music sample: Lowkemia - "Lorem Ipsum" (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Timestamps:

0:14 – Introducing Joel Parrish, co-host of ArtiFact 4:02 – Why was Joel drawn to the arts, but not other pursuits? 6:52 – How artists get stuck in “preparation mode” 8:10 – Alex: knowledge is/was my defense mechanism against insecurities 10:50 – Joel defines Abraham Maslow’s primary argument 17:17 – How do artists perceive their inner world? 23:27 – Alex: art is communication, with an emphasis on “how” 24:55 – The problem with Vladimir Nabokov and Albert Camus 28:45 – Joel: art emphasizes – and requires – some sort of hierarchy 30:54 – Alex: our definitions of art exclude so much from the discussion 36:10 – Maslow says not every feeling of insight is an insight 38:28 – Bela Tarr’s “The Turin Horse” (2011) 42:31 – Growth and regression in the artist 47:15 – Do we really have “options” in life? 54:18 – Joel: artists must cultivate a filter 59:54 – Alex: I’ve given into too many “deficiency needs” these last few years 01:09:11 – Joel: self-actualization is especially hard for artists 01:19:15 – What does the word “high” in “high art” really mean? 01:28:40 – Resolving the artist’s internal contradictions 01:31:12 – Maslow: artists must be selfish and un-selfish at the same time 01:45:03 – Alex: artists must rehabilitate bad works of art for deeper purposes 01:49:07 – Do flow states imply artistic unity? 01:55:02 – Nietzsche and Maslow make similar arguments 01:57:07 – Joel enthusiastically eats a banana 01:57:50 – Critiquing Rainer Maria Rilke’s “Archaic Torso of Apollo” 02:10:46 – Critiquing Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel 02:28:52 – Alex: beauty and art are separate concepts, though they do overlap 02:34:41 – Joel: beauty is a slippery slope to “art is subjective” 02:36:58 – Critiquing Hieronymus Bosch’s “The Garden of Earthly Delights” 02:59:52 – Bosch’s connection to El Greco 03:02:11 – Alex: great artists build infrastructure for the next generation of artists 03:05:15 – Critiquing Wallace Stevens’s “A Rabbit As King Of The Ghosts” 03:20:03 – Critiquing Walt Whitman’s “As I Ponder’d In Silence” 03:26:34 – Joel: artists must enjoy, poke fun of, and take liberties with art